Bringing international artists to Wales: A production by Iranian company Theatre Bazi of That's Enough, Shut Up! at the Centre for Performance Research. Photograph: CPR

In England, an inquiry - headed by Lady Genista McIntosh - has been announced into the recent mishandling by the Arts Council of its redistribution of funding. Like many, I await the results with huge interest. But while many of the companies in England affected by the cuts are making plans either to close (including The People Show, whose final production will be The Ghost Sonata during Liverpool's year of culture celebrations) or find other methods of survival (London Bubble has been awarded transitional funding by the Arts Council and extra support from Southwark Council), spare a thought for our friends in Wales where the blood-letting is still in full flow after the announcement by the Welsh Arts Council that six organisations will be cut from July 2008.

Arts Council Wales (ACW) is being tight-lipped about those affected, but the victims include the Centre for Performance Research (CPR), a cross art-form organisation which only last year was being described by ACW as "a vital and prestigious player in the arts in Wales". CPR has been involved in bringing large numbers of international artists and companies to the UK, including legendary shows such as Ariadne's Thread and pieces by the brilliant Young at Heart Chorus. It has organised numerous conferences and summer schools, and created international partnerships. For many international theatre artists, CPR has played a part, as playwright Kate O'Reilly has said, in putting "Wales on the map".

Even with the axe hanging over it, CPR's annual Giving Voice Festival will take place from today, and includes visits from Poland's Theatre Zar which draws on the Georgian polyphonic tradition, performances by Inuit singers from northern Quebec, and the Iranian Vahdat Ensemble. The loss of CPR would be a major blow, not just to Wales itself but to the wider arts ecology, and sends out entirely the wrong signals about Wales's positioning of itself within the international arts community.

Unlike England, the Welsh arts budget settlement was at standstill and with the need to save money, ACW acted. But as CPR points out, ACW's intended funding cut to CPR is contrary to the assurance given in October 2007 by the Welsh minister of heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas that there would be no cutbacks to recipients outside Cardiff. This happened as AWC was seeking a further £13.5m pounds from the Welsh Assembly Government to save the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. By comparison, the current revenue grant of CPR is a mere £118,300.

As with Arts Council England, it is not ACW's right to reorganise its portfolio that is being challenged, but the validity of the decision-making process. How can an organisation be described as "vital" one year and entirely cut the next? ACW refutes these allegations, saying "clients whose work formed part of the review processes were informed of the reviews and offered the opportunity to contribute". Those with long memories may recall that back in 1999, ACW made such a mess of implementing arts cuts that its own staff threatened a vote of no confidence. Even now, it has been suggested that some at senior level in ACW are unaware of the significance of CPR or simply hope that the University of Aberystwyth, where it is based, will bail it out.

CPR has lodged an appeal and started a petition. In a Kafkaesque flourish, the organisation has been summoned to Hospitality Box 46 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on April 3 to meet ACW. We'll let you know the outcome.